{"id":14681,"date":"2025-12-04T23:46:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/p-e-i-greens-call-on-province-to-release-fall-fiscal-update\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T23:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:46:57","slug":"p-e-i-greens-call-on-province-to-release-fall-fiscal-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/04\/p-e-i-greens-call-on-province-to-release-fall-fiscal-update\/","title":{"rendered":"P.E.I. Greens call on province to release fall fiscal update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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P.E.I. Greens call on province to release fall fiscal update<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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PEIThe P.E.I. Green Party is calling on the province to release its fall fiscal update, which is usually was released sometime in October. Last year, it wasn\u2019t made public until January. This year, Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane is questioning whether the District 2 byelection is a factor in the delay.Green Party leader questions if District 2 byelection is a factor in the delayJenna Banfield \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Dec 04, 2025 7:46 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Finance Minister Jill Burridge, seen here in April 2025, still hasn\u2019t released the fall fiscal update, but finance department officials say it is being finalized and they\u2019re aiming to release it \u201cbefore Christmas.\u201d (Rick Gibbs\/CBC)The P.E.I. Green Party is calling on government to release the fall fiscal update. The checkup on the province\u2019s finances is typically released sometime in October.\u201dIt\u2019s important for Islanders to know the state of the economy right now,\u201d said P.E.I. Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane. \u201cIt\u2019s an appropriate time\u2026 to get an update on how government has been doing with respect to meeting its budget targets, are we on track, what\u2019s the forecast look like.\u201dThe government was already projecting its largest deficit in its history for the 2025-2026 fiscal year when the finance minister released the operating budget in the spring, citing rising costs driven by population growth, an aging population, and ongoing global trade uncertainties. At that time, the deficit was projected to be $183.9 million.But MacFarlane says he\u2019s been hearing that it could be much more than that.\u201dI\u2019m hearing information that the update is not good\u2026 We could be running a projected deficit twice the amount of what was projected to be,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that\u2019s the case, you know, government needs to share good news and bad.\u201dEarlier this fall, the Island\u2019s auditor general raised concerns about P.E.I.\u2019s growing debt and deficit. \u201cThe auditor general\u2026 has made it quite clear that the trajectory the province is on is fiscally unsustainable. That\u2019s a huge concern,\u201d MacFarlane said. Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane says Islanders are once again waiting for a checkup on the province\u2019s finances. (Zoom)Last year\u2019s fall fiscal update was late as well; Islanders had to wait until winter for its release. Officials said at the time the delay was due to the government\u2019s two-month HST holiday and Donald Trump\u2019s tariff threats.MacFarlane is questioning whether the delay this time around is related to the District 2 byelection. Voters in Georgetown-Pownal will go to the polls Dec. 8 to fill the seat left vacant by Steven Myers.\u201dIs there a reason why we\u2019re not getting the update this year on time? Not because of Trump and tariffs, but because of something else, you know, potentially\u2026 a bad, bad news story during a by-election campaign,\u201d he said.Government aiming to release update \u2018before Christmas\u2019In a statement to CBC News, the department of finance said government is committed to transparency and the state of the province\u2019s finances, along with the projected deficit, will be released in the update.\u201dThe forecast is in the process of being finalized, with the recent weeks being used to assess the potential impact of the federal budget to the province\u2019s finances, as well as considerations on actions and partnerships to address the MSX issues,\u201d the statement read, referring to ongoing struggles in the province\u2019s oyster industry, as it struggles against a dual disease threat. The department said the aim is for the fall fiscal update to be released \u201cbefore Christmas.\u201d ABOUT THE AUTHORJenna Banfield is an associate producer for CBC Prince Edward Island. She can be reached at jenna.banfield@cbc.caWith files from Wayne Thibodeau<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P.E.I. Greens call on province to release fall fiscal update PEIThe P.E.I. Green Party is calling on the province to release its fall fiscal update, which is usually was released sometime in October. Last year, it wasn\u2019t made public until January. This year, Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane is questioning whether the District 2 byelection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,131,1],"tags":[116,130],"class_list":["post-14681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-prince-edward-island","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-prince-edward-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}